----* ''{{Series/The 100}}'' starts out about a century or so in the future, with all that's left of humanity having escaped to space when nuclear warfare pretty much made the entire planet radioactive. However, because of limited resources, everything is rationed (with the more privileged naturally having access to better quality everything), there is a "one child per family" law for population control, and all crimes are punishable by death unless you're a minor. Oh, and oxygen systems are failing, so they've got 4 months to live, at best.* ''Series/TwentyFour'': Par for the course when terrorist attacks on American soil have become a common occurrence and the government has essentially given counter-terrorist operatives free reign to use torture on anyone suspected of being involved in the plots. A good way to sum it up would be to point out that in a twenty year period, the U.S. has had nine different presidents, only one of whom actually finished out the term they were elected to. The rest were either assassinated or forced to resign in disgrace.* ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperboy'': In the episode "Roads Not Taken, Part 2", the titular character visits an Earth on an alternate timeline, ruled by a dictator known as the Sovereign, [[spoiler: who is his duplicate in that timeline]].* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica 2003}}'': The human race is made up largely of flawed, amoral, and evil people who barely deserve to continue existing as a species, every victory the fleet wins comes at great cost, [[spoiler: and even the completion of their quest to find Earth nets them nothing but the lifeless, irradiated ruins of a dead civilization.]]* ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'': The first series starts off with him accidentally (more like not lopping off his uncle's head (said uncle absolutely despised him despite not knowing him at all and was willing to use him as arrow fodder because of it), and throughout the series Blackadder just keeps sliding further down the social food chain. It is a case where the ugliness of all ages is this being PlayedForLaughs. The first season is the Dung Ages pretty much with dirt, poverty, the plague, crime-infested counties, dung, wars at the drop of a hat, a warmongering king who causes wars at the drop of a hat, witch hunts and more dung. Even the Prince of the Realm himself isn't safe from the violence much of the time mostly because of the aforementioned cruel kings, ruthless witch-hunters and bloodthirsty criminals. The second season gives emphasis on the reign of terror of the Queenie and how easy it is to end up beheaded and like in the first season there are equally horrible people who vie for her position and as for the heads of the Anglican Church they turn out to be depraved loan-sharks. Also the only available remedy for most ailments is leeches. The third season has the retarded Prince living in luxury while everything outside the palace is pretty much a hell-hole filled with intellectual psychopaths, political psychopaths and higway-men who are also psychopathic. This is complicated by the fact that it is ridiculously easy to rig at the elections. And the fourth well is self-explanatory considering that it was the bloodiest world in history at the time and the incompetence and sociopathy of the heads. Human life has little to no value and those who survive the insane orders that they receive have to live in squalor and have rats as snacks to live anothey day.* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': If they're nice/happy, they stop being nice/happy or they die. If they're not, they get worse or they die. If they get worse, they die. If they don't die, ''run''.* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Albuquerque has a few decent neighborhoods, but otherwise appears to be dirty streets frothing at the mouth with a meth problem.* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': The episode "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E9TheWish The Wish]]" where Cordelia gets transported to an alternate universe where Buffy never came to Sunnydale. The normal Sunnydale is no picnic either, but it was preferable to this.** There's also a 'Buffy' novel that has an even more disturbing Wish-type world. Instead of The Master being the vampire king, Giles is the vampire lord of Sunnydale.** The final season of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' really began to delve into this following [[spoiler:Fred's death]]. [[LivingRelic Illyria]] wondered if there was anything good in the world, and all Wesley could offer her was "hope".*** And season 4 had Jasmine, a benevolent EldritchAbomination who made the world a better place at the cost of free will. Wolfram & Hart were so grateful to Team Angel for getting rid of her that they made them the new head of their LA branch.** The further you get into Buffy and Angel, the more the crapsackness of it's universe is foregrounded. In one episode of Angel, Angel takes an elevator to Hell, only to have it to take him back to the real world because there was no way of making a hell worse than Angel's normal life. It's not for nothing that Joss Wheedon argues the real villain of Buffy Season Six is "life itself".* ''Series/{{Carnivale}}'': TruthInTelevision based on being set in the dust bowl during the Great Depression.* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'': Set in a world where you are born with no power and an easy victim to demons and warlocks, with good powers but too weak to do much and now a target of said demons and warlocks, with bad powers where you have no choice to be good and live in a darwinist underworld, or are the Charmed Ones who are powerful but targeted by virtually all the forces of evil until you either die or kill enough powerful demons that they decide to bide their time and wait to try and kill the next generation. * ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm'': Nearly every character, recurring or one-time, is a miserable {{jerkass}}.* ''Series/{{Cockroaches}}'' is a BritCom which takes place in a post-apocalyptic enviroment, 10 years after nuclear war has devastated the Earth.* ''Series/DarkAngel'': It is set in the crapsack world of the US Pacific Northwest after an {{EMP}} takes out a lot of the infrastructure for the USA (and presumably elsewhere). The series is set in a chaotic world where thugs and criminals are in control and so on. Paragraph 2 of the definition of this trope is a perfect description of the ''Dark Angel'' setting.* ''Series/DeadSet'': A world where the only thing to watch is ''Series/BigBrother''.* ''Series/{{Defiance}}'': After a devastating conflict with alien refugees and a terraforming mishap, the Earth is forever changed. The atmosphere is saturated with electromagnetic radiation, making long-range communications impossible and air travel prohibitively hazardous. Freak weather patterns and uncontrolled terraforming have led to huge swaths of uninhabitable territory. Dozens of abandoned and/or destroyed arkships form a belt of debris around the planet that constantly threatens to fall out of orbit, in the form of either "Razor Rain," where jagged bits crash through the atmosphere at terminal velocity and shred anything in their path, or "Arkfall," where a ''whole ship'' crashes to Earth. Most large animals have either gone extinct or mutated into new hybrid forms. Predatory insects the size of tanks roam the wilderness, and they're not even the worst things out there. Most major cities were completely erased by the terraforming process, and the few left are the seats of power for the fascistic, opportunistic Earth Republic. The other major superpower, the Votanis Collective, isn't much better, as it is politically dominated by the arrogant, warlike Castithans. The only independent nations are small municipalities like Defiance, and those are only able to maintain their independence if they have control over a resource that everyone needs (in Defiance's case, the mineral Gulanite) and taking it by force would be too much of a diplomatic headache. There's so much unclaimed wasteland and abandoned technology that Disaster Scavenging - aka "Arkhunting" - is a viable career choice, and Arkhunters routinely betray and/or kill each other to get ahead. Earth is basically a dying rock full of ruins, monsters, and xenophobia, and no one can ever leave.* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The universe has some individual-story settings that qualify as full-blown Crapsack Worlds. Particularly glaring examples include Thal-[[SignificantAnagram Kaled]] War-era Skaro in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", Varos in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E2VengeanceOnVaros Vengeance on Varos]]", and Androzani in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS21E6TheCavesOfAndrozani The Caves of Androzani]]".** Earth becomes one in "Turn Left", where Donna Noble never meets the Doctor and he drowns when [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride the base beneath the Thames is flooded.]] Without him around, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E1SmithAndJones all but one of the people inside the Royal Hope Hospital die when it's teleported to the moon]] (including Martha Jones, [[Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures Sarah Jane Smith, Luke, Maria, and Clyde]]), London is destroyed and Southern England is irradiated when [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned a replica of the Titanic falls from the sky]], sixty million Americans are killed by [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime the Adipose]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem the Sontarans' plan]] is only narrowly stopped by the ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' team at the cost of their own lives, Captain Jack is stranded on Sontar, England begins [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything shipping minorities off to "labour camps"]][[note]]with [[FridgeHorror the Cybermen theme]] in the background[[/note]], and just when you think things can't possibly get any worse, TheStarsAreGoingOut.** Earth also becomes one during [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords The Year That Never Was]]. With the help of the Toclofane, the Master has enslaved the human race, forcing them to build monuments to him (including carving his face onto Mt. Rushmore) and millions of galactic [=WMDs=] to prepare for war with the rest of the universe. He's destroyed New York, frozen the Nile, poisoned the Caspian Sea, created radiation pits in Europe, erected fusion mills in China, and burned Japan to the ground. The entire planet is also under constant surveillance through the Archangel network. The Doctor, Captain Jack, and Martha's family all remain prisoners onboard the Valiant, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking stuck listening to the Master playing the same songs over and over again.]]** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E11Utopia The year 100 Trillion AD,]] a place even the Time Lords feared to tread. Star formation has ended, leaving the universe mostly empty, dark, and cold. The only remnants of life we see besides the Master are a carnivorous race leading hunting parties across the land, [[LastOfHerKind the last living member of a humanoid insect species]], and ragged remnants of humanity hoping to board a rocket to a promised Utopia...which turns out to be a cruel deception, as Utopia is a world of burning furnaces and the last of humanity screaming at the dark. That's where they transform into their final evolution: the heavily augmented, sociopathic, disturbingly child-like Toclofane. And the real kicker? ''Nothing has been nor can be done to change this future.''* ''{{Series/Dollhouse}}'': It is yet another Whedon example. Even before the mind-control technology apocalypse, apparently the great big amoral slavery corporation was to some degree controlling the government. And then there's the whole dystopian burned-out planet afterwards with technology lying around that can randomly wipe or reprogram your brain anywhere at any time.* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' universe: a weird and astoundingly corrupt place, where the most civilized areas are dominated by one of the two warring [[EvilEmpire empires]]: the Peacekeepers, HumanAlien PrivateMilitaryContractors with a habit of conquering their own clients, a strong bias against any relationship stronger than friendship (with or without [[FriendsWithBenefits benefits]]), and an awful lot of xenophobia; or the Scarrans, a race of warlike [[TheReptilians Reptilians]] with a foreign policy even worse than the Peacekeepers, a vested interest in ruling the galaxy, and a habit of exterminating species they believe to be inferior and without use. The area between them is frequented by fugitives, pirates, mercenaries, con artists, mystics, [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs con artists pretending to be mystics]], assassins, terrorists, gangsters, [[MadScientist mad scientists]], [[EvilSorcerer evil sorcerers]], unscrupulous sects of psychic monks, hordes of ravenous [[MonsterOfTheWeek alien monsters]], [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Godlike Aliens]] with attitude problems, actual gods with even ''worse'' attitudes, interdimensional entities with a decidedly BlueAndOrangeMorality, and an awful lot of contenders for the role of the next EvilEmpire. There are very few episodes in the entire series where anyone gets a straightforward happy ending, and even less that end with the locals being any better off; when it comes time for the Peacekeepers and the Scarrans to finally make peace, the hero has to threaten the ''entire universe'' with a doomsday device- and actually set it off- before they even consider agreeing to a treaty. Oh, and while Earth might have stayed out of the conflict, [[HumansAreFlawed humanity turns out to be no better than any other race in the galaxy]], to the hero's despair.* ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': The Whedonverse extends this further in this show. The largest power is effectively [[ThoseWackyNazis space Nazis]] that have shown that the richest get the best, ''slavery'' still exists, many free worlds are hideously backwards, all the main heroes have a criminal past (one of which was due to a brother saving his sister from MindRape that made her AxCrazy). Oh, and lest we forget the Reavers...** WordOfGod claims that the Alliance do as much good as they do harm. They genuinely want to help people even if they do go about it in ''completely'' the wrong way at times.** This is apparently Jayne's opinion of things; at one point he calls it a "crap-heel 'verse".* ''Series/{{The Flash|1990}}'': Barry Allen in the 1990s show was accidentally thrust 10 years into a future where Central City has been taken over by his brother's killer, Nicholas Pike, and where an underground group of citizens were waiting for [[SecondComing the Flash to return]] in order to set things right.* ''Series/{{Fringe}}'': Sure, the parallel universe has more advanced technology than ours, but their universe is ''literally falling apart''. To the point where the agents of the Fringe Division over there are more or less unbothered by the prospect of [[BodyHorror dying horrifically]] on any given day, since their job demands that some lives must be sacrificed for the greater good.** The prime universe becomes this when [[spoiler:the Observers take over]].** The opening credits ordinarily show the names of various longshot "fringe sciences" (psychokinesis, singularity, quantum entanglement, etc.). In an episode set in a rapidly failing future, the fringe sciences include "water" and "hope". In episodes set under an alien tyranny, the fringe sciences are such things as "Community", "Private Thought", and "Free Will".* ''Series/GameOfThrones'':** Westeros is frequently torn apart by competing factions and insane monarchs, many of whom think little of their troops abusing the peasantry, and the anarchist wildlings beyond the Wall live by fighting and stealing from their neighbours. Rape, murder, robbery, and incest are easily found everywhere. Oh, and every generation there's a winter that can last ''years'' when ''everyone'' worries about starvation. Even worse, this particular cycle, the monstrous White Walkers are waking from their long sleep to invade, but no one is preparing for it.** Essos is perhaps worse. Valyria is still a smoking ForbiddenZone centuries after its destruction. Other places have hopeful names like Slaver's Bay and the Shadow Lands. Much of the rest is a patchwork of rival city-states and vestigial empires of decadent aristocrats completely dependent on miserable slaves and bounded by a vast grassland filled with hordes of marauding Dothraki horse-nomads who slaughter or enslave anyone who cannot flee or buy them off.* ''Series/{{Glee}}'': Welcome to the world of GLEE; where everyone has something sucky and traumatic happen to them at least once a season.* ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'' and ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': Despite being staunchly idealistic, the world of these shows is inhabited by warlords, bandits, mythological monsters and apathetic gods. Other lands like China and India are no better. Even ''Heaven'' is rocked by never-ending conflict.* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'': They have one of these almost every season.* ''Series/HillStreetBlues'': This is another example.* ''Series/{{Incorporated}}'' takes place in a future where climate change has left over half the world's population in poverty while the other half is rich but engaged in ruthless and very literal corporate warfare.* ''Series/IntoTheBadlands'': The Badlands are a rough place. Territories and industrial resources are controlled by feudal overlords that just barely manage to maintain a balance of power with each other, a balance that is in the early stages of crumbling when the narrative begins. Peace and order are kept through force and propaganda. The majority of the population are serfs and/or slaves, owned by their Barons, and the only ticket to a better life is to join the ranks of the Clippers, becoming merciless killing machines. Roving tribes of bandits prey on the hinterlands, robbing and killing at will, and Barons only take action against them when it suits them. There are rumors and legends of a better world beyond the Badlands, but so far they're just that: rumors and legends. Escape from the Badlands means danger and uncertainty, and almost everyone has been ground down by the system too much to even want to try to escape.* ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'': It may always be ''physically'' sunny in Philadelphia, but definitely not in the metaphorical sense.** Played with in one episode where the "heroes" are tearfully united with their real father -- a kindly, warm-hearted, selfless individual who is pretty much their complete opposite. After only a short period of time in their company the father is so horrified he ends up kicking them out.* ''Series/{{Killjoys}}'': Welcome to the Quad System. The entire system is controlled by an evil MegaCorp with an appalling track record on environmental impacts and employee well-being. The planet Qresh is owned by the shareholders, who endlessly squabble with each other like petty nobility, and half the planet is underwater due to a global warming-induced flood. The moon Westerley is a polluted, overmined hellhole, subject to toxic recurring weather patterns and brutal corporate oppression, to the point where a planetwide workers' revolt is imminent. A deal the Company made with the Westerlyns is about to come to fruition, where the 7th generation of Westerlyn citizens have the opportunity to emigrate to the idyllic farming moon Leith and start a new life, which has caused an ultra-nationalist terrorist organization to arise on Leith, who don't cotton to these dirty foreigners coming in and taking their land. The third moon, Arkyn, is a completely mined-out lifeless rock surrounded by a dangerous AsteroidThicket, where evil things go on out of the sight of the authorities. And that's just the Company. There's also whatever the hell Khlyen is up to, as well as some kind of military conspiracy responsible for things like nanotech-enhanced torture techniques and brainwashing soldiers to turn on their own men. And VaguenessIsComing as well. This last one mentioned by one of the military-conspiracy doctors, implying that no matter how bad the things are she's doing, they're designed to protect the Quad from something ''even worse''. It all makes the RAC, the bounty hunters whose official policy is "just do the job, take the money, and don't get involved," seem like the good guys by comparison.* ''{{Series/The League Of Gentlemen}}'': Royston Vasey. There are incestuous serial killers, a ringmaster who kidnaps women, a butcher who sells highly illegal and hideously immoral drugs, an OCD couple who practically worships toads, a pedophile German exchange student councilor and a psychotic lesbian job restart officer who bullies and insults her "dole scum". And that's just 7 characters.* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'': One of the biggest examples of a Crapsack ''universe'' in science fiction. The main characters are horny, greedy cowards who fly a spaceship that eats inhabited planets for food. The one who isn't horny, greedy, or a coward is undead. One of the crew is a humanoid ManEatingPlant who routinely eats people and openly warns that she'll eat her crewmates if ever there isn't anyone else to eat. Another member of the crew has been genetically imprinted with DNA from a monstrous alien carnivore, which leads to her doing things like going into a heat-state, during which she blacks out and eats people, including ''an entire theater's audience'', culminating only when she mates with and consumes a BodyDouble of her love interest. At the end of every season, things have gone from bad to worse. Of note: in Season 2, the crew cripple a being named Mantrid, unwittingly setting up his meteoric ascension to BigBad (and powerful galactic force). By the end of the season, the crew stops Mantrid, but lose several allies (including a plant-like creature and a young boy who helped them) and have unwittingly '''destroyed an entire universe''', not to mention that they've run out of gas and have to go into hibernation for years. By the end of Season 3, they've blown up two planets full of people (one "good" and one "evil" planet, but not all of the people on either planet thought the same way) in order to get enough food for the Lexx to survive.\\\That, in turn, drives the plot of the next season, where the Lexx finds Earth. The crew wants to get the Lexx more food, but they end up doing more harm than good. Several innocent people are killed, one crew member sacrifices himself to stop a destructive invasion of ''killer carrot aliens'', at ''least'' three whole cities are annihilated off the face of the planet by the starship (and that's before Earth is ''blown up''), and the Lexx eventually '''dies of old age'''. The only redeeming point is that the last two surviving crew members get to travel the stars in a spiffy new mini-Lexx. Keep in mind that the ''whole series'' is intended as BlackComedy.* ''Series/LowWinterSun'' begins with two policemen brutally murdering a colleague-one for revenge, the other to cover his own ass from an impending Internal Affairs investigation. This is set against the hellish wastelands of modern Detroit, rife with corruption and drug trafficking.* ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle'': The CentralTheme of the show is "Life is unfair". The implication being that the ''real world'' is this, and its crapsack-ness is examined in the show's fictional universe with only some exaggerations. Really, [[HumansAreBastards what kind of a world punishes its brightest and most capable children with ostracism and vitriol so severe they wish they were normal?]]* ''Series/MarriedWithChildren''. This show's universe is filled with the most despicable people you could possibly come up with. On a daily basis, innocents and guilty alike are punished, the men are almost without fail chauvinistic jackass pigs, the women money digging whiny bitches, authority figures are all corrupt, and the half decent people become worse due to the influence of the deadbeats surrounding them. It is also heavily implied that even God in this universe is a cruel vindictive being, who tortures people mentally just because he can. This universe is so awful that this world's Hell is only slightly worse than the actual universe.* ''Series/MaxHeadroom'': The quintessential CyberPunk {{Dystopia}}. The destitute poor are the largest percentage of the population, mostly living in shantytowns where violent crime and drug abuse are rampant; and the only escape from the misery of it all is watching communal televisions, where all the programming is mindless fantasy and violent bloodsports. The middle class has shrunk, spends most of its time either working soul-destroying jobs, or glued to their televisions, where all the programming is mindless fantasy and violent bloodsports. The upper class is comfortable, but spends most of their time engaged in political scheming (up to and including assassination) and fighting to maintain their social status, when they're not glued to their televisions watching mindless fantasy and violent bloodsports. And if that's not bad enough, the advertisements on television can literally [[YourHeadAsplode make your head explode]].* ''Series/OnceUponATime'': Storybrooke. (The Enchanted Forest is more a WorldHalfFull) In season 1, the fairy tale characters are all trapped in Storybrooke, Maine. They have no memories of their own life, and are being ruled by the [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Evil Queen]], Regina, who is the mayor, and there are no happy endings. Everyone is struggling and no one can leave. However, thanks to TheMessiah, slowly the happy endings start coming back, culminating in the curse breaking, and everyone regaining their original identity. However, in subsequent seasons, the city is continuously plagued by villains, and although you can leave, you lose your fairy tale memories. Storybrooke was almost destroyed 3 times in 2 seasons already, but it's marginally better now because everyone acts like a community now, and can defend their town thanks to the Charming Family.* ''Series/OneFootInTheGrave'': Set in a Purgatory-like British suburbia in which everything always goes wrong and/or is generally unpleasant, and one stuffed to the brim with muggers, burglars, con-men, lunatics and antisocial louts, none of whom ever once get punished or even caught. Practically everyone the Meldrews ever interact with semi-regularly either despises them or is incredibly irritating. The series' overarching message, if it has one, seems to be "Life is cruel, utterly meaningless and basically horrible".* ''Series/RedDwarf'' is set in an empty, vast, meaningless universe. Humanity has gone extinct, and the only things left behind are insane mechanoids and genetically engineered horrors, ranging from distorted mutants to sapient, merciless and highly lethal diseases. The only person seemingly left in existence is David Lister, a British low-classer with especially revolting personal tastes[[note]]like drinking cold curry sauce for breakfast and an aversion to baths[[/note]], who drifts aimlessly through the void with a neurotic cleaning droid, a senile artificial intelligence, a super-egotistical and mega-shallow lifeform that evolved from the common housecat, and the hologram-"ghost" of the most petty, small-minded and all-around irritating people he knew. [[VitriolicBestBuds Who is also]] [[WithFriendsLikeThese his best friend.]]* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': The post-blackout world of the show. ''Especially'' the Monroe Republic, judging from the fact that the Plains Nation people go in for very colorful clothing and arts and crafts, while the Georgia Federation's technological lead is clearly farther advanced and can provide a high enough standard of living that even relatively ordinary people can dress like only the wealthiest people of the Monroe Republic can. It gets even worse, if possible, when the Patriots wreck the Monroe Republic and Georgia Federation, forcing thousands of people into refugee camps.* While leagues above the world seen in the [[Franchise/RoboCop film trilogy]], the world in ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'' isn't a picnic, either, with a war in the Amazon going on (though such a war was mentioned in the original trilogy, too, as part of the backstories for [[Film/RoboCop2 Cain]] and [[Film/RoboCop3 the Rehabs]]), sections of Beverly Hills and Brooklyn have been walled off, and it's perfectly legal to market plushies that double as hand grenades and steroids (with the InUniverse FamilyUnfriendlyAesop that weaker kids deserve to get bullied, no less) to children, speaking English in France can land you in jail, the Italian government has fallen, and the mayor and DA are corrupt and in league with other criminals (with the latter having a fake law degree and helped to frame someone for said phony degree).* ''Series/{{Sliders}}'': Being a TV series about people traveling across parallel versions of Earth, it has so many examples, starting with the Ice Age world in the pilot episode.* ''{{Series/Salem}}'' is a contest of power between camps of venal theocrats, black magic witches and [[spoiler:the Devil himself]]. [[spoiler:The most virtuous character winds up consigned to Hell for eternity at the end of the series.]]* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode the "Quickening" showed a planet the Jem'Hadar decided to make an example of. Not only was the place blasted into the Stone Age, but the people of the planet were given a genetic disease called the Blight. All are born with it-anyone who does not take their own lives first dies of it. One man, being treated well because the Blight was in its final stages, said that he was glad to have bathed and slept in a bed for the first time in his LIFE. * This is the case for Dawn Cottrell, the high school-aged protagonist in the Made-for-TV movie ''Secret Cutting'' (or alternately known as ''Painful Secrets''). Her home life sucks; her [[MyBelovedSmother mother]] is a [[ItsAllAboutMe self-centered]] and vindictive woman who's all about appearances and aside from belittling her daughter, also belittles her father, who struggles to show affection for his daughter and stand up for himself, and tries too hard to prove herself a better mother than hers was in spite of being just as bad. Her brother acts even more outwardly disrespectful towards her than their mother does. Life at school in no better. [[FriendlessBackground She virtually has no friends]] and [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer is constantly subjected to contempt and mockery from her more "popular" peers,]] even though she is desperate for their approval, which [[TeensAreMonsters they know about and use to their advantage.]] She believes she has a boyfriend, but all he wants her for is sex. Oh, and anytime she ''does'' try to stand up for herself,[[AllForNothing it completely backfires]] as someone always manipulates her into thinking she has no right to defend herself. To cope with it all, she begins to cut herself, which is eventually discovered initially by her only friend, who's pretty troubled in her own right, but then by her family and ''then'' the whole school after her mother lets the secret out [[JerkAss "in order for peer pressure to make you stop since you can't on your own."]] Things go from bad to worse and culminates in a desperate [[DrivenToSuicide suicide attempt.]]* ''Series/{{Smallville}}'': Earth-2 is an AlternateUniverse where Clark was found and raised by Lionel Luthor. Lionel uses Clark's abilities to basically take over the world. No one is safe, even- [[AbusiveParents or especially]]- Lionel's children, particularly [[TheUnfavorite the two that don't have godlike powers]].* ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'': Charming where the most positive characters are a Type IV AntiHero (or is Jax an AntiVillain? Hard to tell.) and a KnightInSourArmor.* ''Series/StargateSG1'': The entire Milky Way Galaxy as depicted is like this. As depicted in the series, the galaxy's population is primarily enslaved humanity duped into worshiping a bunch of evil aliens who get a kick out of posing as gods (never nice benevolent Judeo-Christian Jehovah God who never ever shows up yet {{Satan}} does, more like "Kneel Before Zod" gods), taking over the bodies of unwilling people, and ruling their planetary systems through a mode of governing best described as Unapologetic Dog Kicking (i.e. one System Lord basically nuked an entire populated star system rather than let it fall to another). In fact, part of the reason these evil aliens so despise Earth, is because it is one of the precious few relatively happy and free worlds in the galaxy. On top of this, when the evil aliens are defeated they are ALWAYS replaced by even more AxCrazy foes (i.e. crazy religious fundamentalists with indestructible apostles and ships, robots bent on consuming whole planets, etc.) And if that's not good enough, the one powerful good race that WANTS to help is locked in a war for survival against said robots and the best they can do is bluff the parasitical aliens into leaving a few worlds alone. ** ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': The Pegasus Galaxy isn't much better. It used to be a pretty nice place a long time ago under the stewardship of the [[{{Precursors}} Ancients]]. Then they unwittingly create a fast-breeding, [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampiric]] race of pseudo-humanoids with bio-ships who defeat the Ancients despite their vastly superior technology and then start feeding on the galaxy's humans, periodically waking up from slumber to "harvest" the galaxy. Additionally, not all Wraith are asleep. Some keep watch and wipe out any civilization that even hints at possibly being threatening to them. The [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascended]] Ancients aren't going to help. The only consolation is the [[EnemyCivilWar Wraith fighting among themselves]], as they were woken up ahead of schedule, and there isn't enough "food" for them to go around. The three times the humans from Earth encounter civilizations advanced enough to be their allies against the Wraith, they end up as new enemies. These include crazy humanoids composed of nanites (similar to the Replicators) who, when finally turned against the Wraith, choose to wipe out their "food" (i.e. all humans) instead. The Genii are a militaristic underground culture with 50s technology and a beef against Earth humans. The Vanir turn out to be a renegade faction of the benevolent Asgard, who view humans as expendable and are perfectly willing to destroy every single stargate in an EarthShatteringKaboom to keep safe from the Wraith.* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': This world plain sucks, and ''hard''. While you're alive, you're random victim fodder for all the monsters you've ever heard of (from urban legends to mythological beasts), and some you haven't... yet. The afterlife is a bitch where you are endlessly tortured in the BloodyBowelsOfHell as time passes according to YearInsideHourOutside logic, unless you decide to turn in to a demon yourself. Heaven isn't much better, it's [[LotusEaterMachine the Matrix]] ruled by a CouncilOfAngels who have severe ParentalIssues by way of HaveYouSeenMyGod. And for a third option, you can stay and become a ghost until you go crazy from loneliness and turn in to a poltergeist. Did I also mention it's TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt?** According to the vision showed to Dean by Zachariah, in five years time it's going to be even worse, as [[spoiler: Dean is a homicidal, JerkAss soldier, Sam is possessed by Lucifer, and the only angel to give a damn about the human race is a hippie stoner/love guru who uses drink, drugs and orgies to cover up his new NietzscheWannabe attitude. Life sucks in 'The End']]. By season five's ending, however [[spoiler:Sam has managed to seal both Michael and Lucifer in Hell]]. In season twelve, [[spoiler: Lucifer is free again, begetting Satanspawn and eventually trapped in a crapsackier alternate universe than the main universe.]]** Demons, monsters and angels don't have it much if any better. If you're a demon you're condemned to Hell to suffer unless you escape to Earth where you will likely be killed by a hunter or an angel. If you're a monster, you have to constantly keep a low profile and an eye over your shoulder for hunters who will kill you for no other reason then being a monster. Sooner or later you will give into your violent instincts whether you want to or not. And when you die you go to Purgatory, which is considered one step above Hell, where you have to fight other monsters constantly only to be die and reborn elsewhere for all eternity. If you're an angel, you had it good tell the higher ups failed to bring about the Apocalypse resulting in massive civil wars and every angel forcibly expelled from heaven.* ''Survivors'': The majority of the world population is wiped out by the machinations of a evil corporation.* ''Series/TerraNova'': The Earth of 2149 has so much environmental damage that the sky is an acrid yellow with smog and pollution, the atmosphere can no longer be breathed, and overpopulation is so severe that having more than two children is an arrestable offence.* ''Series/{{Titus}}'': Where the only really helpful advice for getting through life is "Stop being a wussy".* ''Series/TheTwilightZone'': Several episodes take place in worlds like this. Examples include "It's a Good Life", where one [[EnfanteTerrible all-powerful boy]] controls everyone, "Eye of the Beholder" where everyone who is ugly is ghettoized, "Number Nine Looks Just Like You", where everyone has to get surgery to look like one of a limited number of models, and "The Obsolete Man", where religion is outlawed and you are terminated if declared "obsolete".* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': It begins with the titular heroine's best friend being brutally murdered. When Veronica's dad, the town sheriff, goes after the wrong man, he loses his job, his wife abandons him, and his daughter becomes a social outcast. Then she gets drugged and raped at a party, and when she tries to report it, the new sheriff accuses her of making it up and laughs in her face. Again, all of this happens ''in flashback before the first episode's plot begins''. [[FromBadToWorse Things only go downhill from there.]]* ''Series/TheWalkingDead'': This is to be expected, considering the world has fallen victim to a ZombieApocalypse. The show is relentlessly grim, the kids among the survivors aren't even safe from horrible deaths.* ''Series/WaterlooRoad'': The review describing this show as being set in a town resembling a cross between ''Dante's Inferno'' and ''Baghdad'' was uncannily accurate.* ''Series/{{Weeds}}'': It's somewhat easier to root for the VillainProtagonist when all the forces of law and order are corrupt hypocrites, and all of the other characters are in it up to their necks.* ''Series/TheWire'': This is an example of the WorldHalfEmpty done right, especially in the fourth season (which focuses on four inner-city schoolchildren, [[spoiler: only one of whom manages to escape into a decent life]]). But even "done right" it can be enough to overwhelm people.** The sad thing is that everyone who knows the RealLife situations they show says it is all what it is really like.* ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': The wizarding world. For utterly arbitrary reasons (seriously, we've never been actually told why) there can only be one wizard per family. Children grow up with powers and train for the wizard competition in which they will battle their sibling(s). One wins, the others lose their powers forever. We've seen at least one planned uprising by a large group of thwarted siblings, and one can assume that the earlier generation of the Russo's isn't the first - or the last - wizarding family to be torn apart by asinine rules. [[spoiler: And [[{{Sadist}} Alex, Justin and Max]] didn't care when they [[DisproportionateRetribution killed someone for leading a revolution for wizards to never have to give up their powers.]]]]** Furthermore, the wizard world is full of FantasticRacism and any wizard who wants to marry a non-wizard has to give up their powers.* ''Series/TheYoungOnes'': EVERYONE in this universe is at best an abject moron, and at worst also an [[{{Jerkass}} abject bastard.]] The employment classifieds of the newspaper are always completely blank. All of the [[PoliceAreUseless policemen]] are miserably thick, some of them to the point that they donít even demonstrate normal human thought processes. Army sieges, avoidable plane crashes, and full-blown street riots -- in [[RefugeInAudacity residential areas,]] no less -- are [[WorldOfWeirdness everyday occurrences.]] Oh, and a half-psychotic young man with a lengthy history of violence and destruction is not only allowed to walk the streets, but is enrolled in a ''pre-med program.'' Yikes. Just ''yikes.''----